My Van Year Intention

My van will be ready for the road in less than two weeks and people keep asking me: What is your plan? I give them a different answer every time. It’s confusing. For me and for them.

I decided to buy a van and find a van outfitter on a whim. The idea of having my home with me where I traveled—and no longer being confined to luxurious jail cells (i.e. traditional homes)—made sense to me. But I didn’t know much beyond that.

One common answer I give to people is: I’m going to see how it goes. Go with the flow. You know. Maybe I like it, maybe I don’t. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing.

This answer was akin to when people asked me about my spiritual beliefs years ago. I would say I’m agnostic. It was okay for some time but was generally confusing. I was indecisive.

I waited for some time until I was forced to make a decision (the right decision) about my spiritual standing. I don’t want to wait for that time with my van, or anything else worth making a decision about. Indecisiveness sucks. So I want to make a decision, here and now, about what I’ll use my van for.

What will I do with my van in 2022? I will be with my van every day. Where I go it must go. And I will live from my van. I will sleep, cook, clean, work, reflect, and enjoy there—or around the van in the nature that surrounds. It will be my home. Before, I was indecisive about this. Now it is so.

In addition to being with my van every day, I want to document my experience. To do this I will:

• Write a short post every day. I will publish it here on this Medium publication. I will dedicate 30 minutes every evening to writing it and keep it short and fun. Some days I won’t want to write. It’s important to write during these days. If I absolutely cannot, I can use my screenwriting time in the morning to catch up.
• Take a picture every day. I will include this picture at the top of that day’s post. I won’t post this on social media. That will take me out of my experience, artificially into other people’s experiences. I know this from experience (wink). Social media platforms like Instagram already peaked. It’s only downhill from here. Watch out. Protect your mind.

And that’s it. This simplicity will make room for experiences worthy of reflection. Also, this project is for me. At times I’ll be tempted to abandon it. I must not do this. I learned this from reading Mike Hudson’s book (aka Van Dog).

I have other projects that are not for me, such as my day job and screenwriting efforts. My day job is for contributing to technology, which is allowing me to write this to you now. My screenwriting is for serving people by helping them reconnect to what is true: that unseen and mysteriously beautiful thing that is felt. Maybe I can accomplish that with this project sometimes, too. That would be a nice little bonus.

Thanks to Mike Hudson for inspiring this clarity and decision.